Rakghoul Blight
by crispi1
Summary: Well, what would happen if Rakghouls were not only engineered by sith but that they are a byproduct of someone/something else ? Thedas will meet the star travelers, and Rakghouls will find their long less feral cousins. Change is comming , cogs are spinning, and past heavly influences e bounty hunter will have his hands full, and Wardens will get new allies.
1. Chapter 1

**Author note: StarWars : The old Republic and Star wars does not belong to me. Dragon Age does not belong to me. OC were made from characters that I played as in the game of SWTOR. Please if you see that there are some grammar mistakes, just point them out. English is not my primary language, this is my first story, so I am happy to receive small critics on that field. :D. Will probably update every once in the week. University and that kind of stuff. Hope you will enjoy the story.**

Rakghoul blight

Chapter 1 - Contract

 **Time: Star wars: The Old Republic, somewhere between 12 ATC and 16 ATC**

 **Place: D5 Mantis, Arkanax POV**

The crew was nervous, to say at least. Not because that the job was hard or complex, but because it was strange. Sure, they had some weird jobs and bounties to collect, but this screamed weird. All that was written in contract was that contractor needs to meet the Grand champion of Great hunt and his expertise for a journey and that everything will be explained when they arrive on a given meeting point.

Arkanax and his crew tried to avoid this kinds of jobs, because they turned more often than not to be Republic`s or Jedi`s traps. In this case, however, he could not decline this job, for it came on his personal hologram, addressed directly on his name. What also surprised him that the message was coded by Old Imperial Intelligence and that is managed to bypass Mako`s defences was not a small feat. Whoever was behind it, it was someone of great influence that he could manage to get some agents of Imperial Intelligence, and Arkanax had even an idea who it may even be... Cipher 9. That was something that sent shiwers down his spine, even to the seasoned bounty hunter.

Arkanax had his code of honour which was close to the Mandalorian`s, but he himself did not yet thought of true Mandalorian. Torian was a good teacher of Mandalorian history, culture, language and code of honour. And one of lines in Arkanax code of honour was not to kill bystanders and those who do not have bounty. Unfortunately, many people that stood in a way of him and his bounties decided to throw their lives by attacking Arkanax. The one who he thought as a saddest example of those was a jedi apprentice, whose master was his bounty. Who thought that jedi could harbour a great amount of hatred, grudge, and bloodthirstiness hiden behind a mask of peacekeepers. On the other hand ...Cipher9 was a ruthless being, to get a job done he would walk over the skulls of bystanders. Arkanax saw one of his works, the blowing of a skyscraper full of people just to get the Republic attention there so that he could bait out his target for assassination. Of course, that is not information that anyone knows, but he heard rumours about Cipher 9, saw the news about destruction of building and assassination of a Republic leader. Everyone with a little bit of brain could connect the two and two on what happened.

And now Arkanax got a contract that was coded by Imperial intelligence, mostly by Cipher 9, that he was needed. The more he thought about the job, the weirder it got. The templates of his forhead were hurting him. "Boss , Blizz made you some coffe to think better. Need a Boss to be more optimistic." "Thank you Blizz, how is the ship? Do we have enough of spare parts, or shall we get some? " "Do not worry Boss, Blizz loves the ship, already has prepared spare parts and spare parts of spare parts. Managed to acquire them very cheap on Tattoine. Good trade with other jawas, very happy. Must check them again, hope Boss thinks of something out."

He was happy for the little fella. Meet him on the Hoth, a planet of ice, rescued him from the prison and managed to get the best mechanic he could think of which also turned to be a caring friend. Not like certain old gang boss of Black Suns, but he should check those parts that Blizz mentioned he got on Tattoine. No matter how genius a Blizz was and his ability to make something from almost nothing, it would not matter if some parts were of poor quality, and with jawas you never knew. But that may come after he resolved the matter of mysterious contractor. Well, the ship is currently close to the Taris, the meeting point. It would not hurt them to check what is that all about, but that does not prevent them for not getting out of it with guns blazing and some explosions. He went to inform the crew of his decision.

"Crew, we shall dock on Taris space station in 6 hours. Get a good sleep and double check your gear, we do not know what can we expect, but make sure you have with yourself several vials of rakghoul serum and that your suits are tightly sealed, do not wish that anyone gets bitten or infected with rakghoul plague. If things go south, keep your head cool and down. Mako, Gault, you are coming with me on the ground. Blizz, Turian, you take care of ship and be ready to depart at any given time. I do not like this mission all at all, but as all others weird jobs we have done, the sooner we finish it, the sooner we will get back home." And with that, he went into his room that he shared with his darling, Mako.

 **On Taris, Galas Lausk POV**

"From all places, did we really have to come over here? It is not that I am complaining, I truly love and can`t hide my excitement from possibility of getting poisoned from just breathing air, or that some of wildlife sees me as a nice intercourse, seasoning or even delicacy. Don`t make me start on even how happy I would be to maybe turn into one of the natives, the Rakghoul. Wonder how the twi`lek rakghoul would look like ... "

"I can assure you, nothing will happen to you Vette, have some faith in me, will ya? We were already once here, and if there was not a cute twi`lek who was always asking me to find a cure for this plague, we would still be spending our secret honeymoon. "

He got hit by her first a little bit. It was not like it could do a harm to Sith juggernaut, but he played along. He loved her, and he never forgot the first time they were on Taris. After seeing the rakghouls in their full force and their ability to corrupt or infect everyone into one of them just by a single bite or scratch, decided that studying bio analysis would be a good idea. There existed the antidotes and serums against being infected by rakghoul plague, but once you were infected there was nothing you could do against it. After Vette once found him searching on holonet information of rakghoul , she helped him quite a lot by making some contacts with the archaeologists and some experts on history of rakghouls plague.

It was not showing any progress, until Galask Lausk decided to call an "ally or friend", sith inquisitor, now a dark councillor of sith, for insights. They knew each other from their days of being apprentices of siths where they aided each other with their mission. Chakara was a quite a bookworm and history enthusiastic, but that never made him want to get on her bad side. He saw her powers in the Force, and they were even for sith pureblood quite terrifying. But theirs ways have parted after Korriban, and now they were one of influential people in Empire politics. He thought that she would not remember him or not help him all at all, so he played on the card that always proved a hook, line and sinker combination for her, and that is history and mysteries. She helped him a lot, but she had a condition of her own and that was that she would work with him on project, and they will both find answer to the cure and root of plague.

After several months of working on their project, they fund that it was not an easy mission, but they came up with some information. Rakghoul plague was made by sith which enabled him to put his control on everyone that was infected and thus making them their slaves. They also found that the first rakghouls were made purely by sith magic, but that some aliens and force sensitive proved immune to sith magic and so the plague was made to compensate for it. But the problem was where it was made. Some of the scripts containing the knowledge of whereabouts of sith who made the plague showed that he was several years in Unknown Regions before showing again on Taris.

They did not know what to expect, so they decided to hire a bounty hunter. It was not because they were weak or could not protect themselves, but because the bounty hunters were always prepared for everything, and had the top grade technology always with them. They didn`t want dark council catching up to them on this project and had some contacts in disbanded Imperial intelligence, so they asked for Cipher 9 to make a contact with a bounty hunter.

And now he was waiting for the bounty hunter to come to meeting point. Well, only he could make it without Dark Council becoming suspicious, while Chakara stayed studying some of the artefacts, making sure the Dark council would not start suspecting. Well, he managed to get a doctor Lokin on his side or rather, the doctor found him. The doctor was with them here, he said he wanted himself to evaluate the bounty hunter. Galas did not know what to make out of doctor, but he knew that doctor knew more than he let it be known. "Doctor, tell me why are you seeking to evaluate the bounty hunter by yourself?" He wanted to break the silence and spend some time while they waited for hunter. "You never know with the hunters, and knowing Cipher 9, he probably spiced things a lot and somehow got the so called best in their line of work. But what do I know he could only have some good sponsors and not be fit for the job. And speaking of devil ... "

Galas felt him before Doctor even said anything. He sensed him with the force, but was puzzled because the person seemed familiar from somewhere, as he knew him long time ago. The armored man was clearly a mandalorain by the armor he was wearing, if that was any indication. He was followed by a smaller person equally well armored, and he thought that was probably a female by her smaller body frame. He also sensed another one, who was going through shadows and going on some elevated place. The leader of man said something on Mando`a, langauge of Mandalorains to a famele one. Well, the things got interesting. He wanted to greet the group, but the Doctor was already ahead of him an introduced himself to the group.

"Name is Doctor, and my allies are the sith warrior Merlin and his companion twi`lek. And if we could know your name, mister ... ?" Galas was baffled but understood the precaution of doctor. You never knew if the hunter was already working for someone else already.

"If we are going to play a game of lies, tricks, backstabbing, and betrayal, I will turn back and go back home no matter how many credits you throw at me. I know very well that this sith juggernaut is not Merlin. So, come clean of the job so that I can decide to even form a contract with you. By the way, call me Cabur and mine companion Shusai. "

"It seems that we can`t hide anything from you. Name is Galas Lausk. Well, we need to get few people to follow us on expedition in one of tunnels of Taris infested with rakghouls. What we seek is anything out of ordinary or that it may have an archaeological importance. We will pay you as much you seek, but there is a condition. We need secrecy, and once the job is taken you cannot leave the planet until the job is finished. We mean strictly business, and this is not any kind of trap. So you can say to your third member to get out of shadows and stop aiming at us with sniper". He liked how the hunter was straight forward. He was not selling them fog, and also prepared an ace in sleeves if things went south and also, hunter knew him from somewhere, probably heard a thing or two about Galas. Doctor gave him a look, and he gave him a sign not to probe or test Hunter anymore. It was an imperative for them to get this hunter on their side and to sign the contract. It was not because he showed professionalism and a little bit of being prepared for anything, but also something else was telling him to pick him as a Hunter.

"Well, now that you have given those terms... I will have to think about those. Need to speak with the rest of the crew about this. We will inform you of our decision in a matter of a day. Here, catch." And Hunter threw at him the little hologram." It is coded so it will not be easily breached by anyone. Will send you message through it. If we do not accept the contract it will self-destruct. If we do accept the contract, we will use this as communication device between each other. "

With that said, the Hunter left the meeting point, and his companions followed after him. Well, Galas thought, _that went better than expected_. Even though he could see Doctor was annoyed that he was not in charge of everything, Galas just returned the favour. Doctor was a valuable pawn, but Galas was a commander of this operation and had a final word. Now, even thought he could not command everyone, he knew that he could only wait and prepare his part of team for this mission. With or without Hunter, he would go and see the expedition done.

Several hours later:

Bip, Bip , bip ... Bip Bip Bip. The hologram was responding. Galas put him somewhere where it could be safe if it self-destruct. It started the bepping and bipping , so Galas was ready to respond if the message arrives. Then, it stopped bepping. The only thing later, there was a single message: " We accept the agreement and terms of contract. We will a week to be fully prepared if we do not wish to leave planet. That is on name of my honour, the Winner of Great Hunt. " Galas could only smile. The cogs are starting to move.

 **Thedas: Unknow POV**

The cogs are starting to move, and great events will take place. Blight is on horizon, and the winds of change are coming. The world will not wait to get hurled into the chaos, it will be embraced in it. And chaos, change, fate, who knows what anymore, will shape those who will fight and survive. A change is coming to all and nothing will stay same. Only those who presume to know nothing will be the only ones with wisdom in these times. Good will become evil, evil will become good, the protectors will turn into aggressors, the caged will free themselves, fear will rule over all.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author Note: Star Wars: The old Republic and Star wars does not belong to me. Dragon Age does not belong to me. OC were made from characters that I played as in the game of SWTOR. I hope you will enjoy the story, so it will help to hear you over the Reviews. This chapter will be a little bit shorter than what I normaly want to write ( 2k+ words per chapter).** **Cabour and Sushai would on mando`a mean protect and sensor while Galas Lausk on sith means Last hope. Let`s not prolong it more than it is needed, here is the story.**

Rakghoul blight,

Chapter 2: Expedition

 **Thedas, Ostagar, Duncan POV (several months before Ostagar battle)**

King Cailan is young, inexperienced and expects a lot of things. He probably thinks that the Grey Wardens will come riding the griphons every time Darkspawn emerge from Deep Roads and underground to wreak chaos on Ferelden. But it is true that the reports on number of Darkspawn did make Duncan little bit worried. He will have to find new recruits for the Grey Wardens, because if his suspicions are true, then this emergence of Darkspawns is a work of an Archdemon. Grey Wardens will need every woman or man, human, elf or dwarf, that they can recruit in their ranks. And the duty has been befallen upon him.

 **Duncan POV (after sending the new recruits to retrieve the ancient treaties and vials of darkspawn blood)**

Duncan was remembering the last few months, which have not been easy on him. Firstly, he ventured into the Deep Roads to hear from the first hand from the dwarfs on are their thought on the massing of Darkspawns. It just confirmed and hammered him in his belief that the new Blight was coming, and helped him encounter and recruit dwarf noble born, Gulark, who was exiled from Orzammar and left in Deep roads. He was not speaking much, but what little did he speak, he was worried about some dwarf woman. Duncan decided rather not to pry in the reasons of his exile, for the dwarfen society and politics were on a level of Orlesians. With the Gulark, and information that he got from the dwarf Legion of the Dead, Duncan ventured into the Denerim to retrieve a vials of Archdemon blood needed for the ritual of Joining to Grey Wardens.

The dwarf did not want to enter the city, and after retrieving the vial, Dunacn found that something unusual was happening in elven alienage. He went to investigate it, and found that elfs were mourning because some lord decided to come and thrash a wedding ceremony and took women. The opportunity was right for Dunacn because a possible new recruit has appeared. He managed to infiltrate the mansion of noble, only to find that the groom killed the noble. With quick thinking and seeing that the abilities of the female elf could come well in Grey Wardens, he conscripted her as a new recruit. She also had her own share of truble, and needed a lot of help from Dunacn to stay mentally sane. While he was nursing her, a thief tried to pickpocket him, but he managed to catch the thief red handed and conscripted him. Sent the thief with some Grey Wardens that were already in Denerim to Ostagar, becuase he had to nurse a Kallian from mental hell that she was living through. The help that he did not expect was from the dwarf, Gulark. Gulark found them in Denerim and was vouching for them to start moving while Duncan was of other idea, but he had to agree with dwarf that they had to move. When they left Denerim, there have been some improvements in Kallian mental health, and most on his surprise, the dwarf was helping the elf.

Duncan hoped that with the new recruit there will be no suffering or personal drama, but seems that Maker was playing a wicked game on Duncan. Duncan, Kallian and Gulark arrived in Highever for the son of the noble. While the dwarf and elf stayed in the inn, Duncan found the lord of Highever preparing the army and his oldest son to march and help king Cailan against the darkspawn. The preparations were going nicely, and the lord welcomed Duncan with open arms, and even introduced him with his youngest son Aedan. Dunacn saw a potential in Aedan but decided to wait until tomorrow to decide if he will recruit the Aedan or sir Gilmore. The fate is cruel, and the Howe`s man who were late to march together with Cousland army attacked the Highever. The Aedan and Duncan managed to escape from them, and they were joined later with Gulark and Kallian. Duncan saw the potential in his recruits, mostly in compassionate dwarf Gulark who was nursing the Kallian and Aedan. He even for the first time opened about himself after hearing what happened to Aedan, and managed to lift a spirit of Aedan. The Kallian was little better and she was managing to hold herself now, but she used to cry once or twice while she slept.

Well, with his ragtag group of recruits, Dunacn arrived in Ostagar. He knew what was waiting all recruits, but he hopped they will not die through ritual in becoming Grey Wardens. The recruits were accompanied by the Alistar, so Duncan decided to prepare the mixture for them to arrive and pray to the Maker for his good will and mercy in ritual of Joining. He also sent the recruits to find the ancient treaties, for he did not trust Calian. He could feel that the threat was bigger than what he thought at the beginning, and if they could not stop the Blight at Ostagar, they would be in the need of old allies. But he hoped that will never happen.

 **Taris, Galas Lausk POV**

Well, I was sceptical at first that the Arkanax will uphold to the deal, especially after saying he will need a week to prepare everything, but in the end, it paid off to wait for him. He arrived with the drone that looked a lot like centipede, but it was bulky and could store supplies that were tightly secured from external damage and biological contamination. He also made whole expedition practice moving in small and tight space, and making sure we will always check if we are still under influence of rakghoul serum to avoid being infected by the rakghoul plague. The expedition was containing Vette, Cabour and Sushai, which turned to be actually called Arkanax and Mako, Turian, Jaesa, Pierce and Doctor Lokin, if you do not include Galas and several drones that they took for precaution and that they may watch over camp were team would sleep. The jawa following Arkanax was an interesting fellow and he was their master on communication with outside world. Even though they were going on important mission, he had to remain in contact with some of his companions and the Chakara, so that she would know how the things were progressing.

We were already a week underground and killed a horde after horde of Rakghouls. The drill that Arkanax made whole team memorise by letter was paying off, and none of us was infected. We managed to map a lot of severs and tunnels of Taris from time before Empire bombing. On the seventh day of expedition did we find what we were looking for, a ruinous sith space ship. We managed to salvage as much as information as we could from it, from galaxy map and travel path to the items of archaeological and scientific importance and even a sample of a dead unknown race of Rakghouls which was labelled genlock in ship`s computer. The genlock fascinated Doctor Lokin because he had a form of tribal clothes and armor, so it was clearly that it had some intellect and culture, which was unheard. We all managed to get out of the damned tunnels just to be ambushed by some passing Republic forces, which we managed to repel and get in Empire controlled territory. I thought that after finishing with this expedition, the bounty hunter will part ways with us but he stayed and offered a help in this kind of a project. Said that he was interested in it, and that his gang managed to decode the travel path of ancient ship and found a planet in Unknown Space which was not mapped in galaxy charts. That made me wonder and fear, for the Unknown Space was called that because of reason. Many things were not known about it, from Chiss and Rattataki homeworlds , to some myths and folk tales originating from there. Bounty hunter would only reveal the coordinates of that world if I would reveal reason and idea of all this expedition and fascination with rakghouls. Even though I already had an ally in Chakara, sith inquisitor, the bounty hunter proved to be a trustworthy person on who I could rely and he had an aura around him familiar to the older Galas brother who was took by slaves 12 years ago. Also, it is better to send a scout before bringing a bigger force on the planet. So by going with that path of thought, Arkanax was let to know everything about project that Galas started and was given a mission to scout the planet before the rest of forces lead by Galas and Chakara would arrive.

Jaesa Willsam would accompany Arkanax in his scouting party as an insurance of Galas that they will scout the planet. Also for another reason, if there were intelligent beings on that planet, that her training as jedi may come handy in dealing with natives of planet on diplomatic scale. Galas really hoped that Jaesa would relax a little bit around people maybe a company of mercenaries would be able to do it. Arkanax seemed that he will not have a problem with having a Force sensitive on his ship, until it wanted to influence his crew. Jaesa was not slightly happy about it, but after she heard the explanations that I gave her and saw a reason and logic in them she decided to follow them. Lieutenant Pierce left to meet some old friends on Taris and Doctor was inspecting the genlock. Finally, some free time and free ship for him and Vette. He will have to compensate for all the time he and Vette could not have their intimate moments alone in almost a month. In any case, he will put a note on door to ship labelled as " Out of Order, come later. "


	3. Notification

**Notification**

 **AN : Hello readers, followers and other fellas from all across the universe. I will not be able to put a new chapter this week, because of exams for my university. I hope you will not be mad, please do not throw rotten tomatoes on me. I apologize again for the inconvenience. Also, wanted to say / use this for notifying you that soon, the rank of this fanfiction crossover will rise to K+ or maybe T, because of mention of coarse language and some of scenes that are not really nice or morally clean. I will be putting also some hints of modern culture, like names of song (a great range of good songs, mostly not of modern pop) that would be slightly changed. I hope you manage to decode them :D Furthermore, I hope giving you here some insights of some characters used from swtor game that I am using in here and giving brief information about them.**

 **Arkanax, the bounty hunter(human), age 27:**

Ok, this fella is light side orientated ( not like the idea of it being that way in swtor that non force user have light or dark side orientation, it would be better if they had some of moral orientation... maybe that is done by light and dark side points...). I really loved his abilities, his subclass is bodyguard and he is married to Mako. I loved his storyline, and ability to spare the bystanders. Learned more about the Mandalorian code from Torian Cadera and from Gault learned of some dark trade and greed ( did not go that way with doing his mini missions) . Blitz is the follower I loved the most, because a Jawa on ice planet which is cute, loyal and can tinker with anything containing technology, count it as my favourite chapter.

Well, idea with him and being light side orientated is that I wanted to make a character that is in contrast for his job, but that he is also quite professional in doing it. He gets the target, he will take the target down. He gets the job, he will finish it. But if there are some bystanders blocking his path to his goal, he will give them a chance to get out of his way and will not attack them first. Ironically, he is somehow doing what should somehow the jedi should do, but they do not. Even in his storyline, with the jedi padawan that is consumed with idea of revenge. His motivation lies in it being that he is compassionate of others for he was once a slave and knows how it is to be of low rank in society. But more of it will be revealed in storyline. Also, even though he is accepted in Mandalorian society, he does not see himself as a true Mandalorian for he does not follow their code entirely. He follows all parts of it but not the one of responding to Mandalor call to war and following Mandalor in his battles. Arkanax saw enough of leaders that are led by their own stupidity, pride, honour and greed to know better than to follow anyone easily into the war.

 **Galas Lausk , the sith warrior(human) , age 25:**

The sith warrior was the first class I ever played in star wars : the old republic MMORPG. I loved the humour of Vette, but never managed to finish the storyline, because when i started playing the game, the levelling was immensely slow and taxing. Plus, you could not give your companions marking if they are to tank, heal or do dmg. Well, his affliction in force is more to the Light side, for I wished to contradict the idea that all sith are genuinely rage mongers and want to slain/kill/reveal in carnage. He would be something akin to the grey jedi ) if he were in republic, so here he would be an illuminated sith? ( if I am right, they embody both sith and jedi code and seek to find the balance in it. I may be wrong in it. He is in love relationship with Vette, but because he is a sith warrior and has a lot of enemies that could abuse the information that he is in love with his slave, both of them have to keep secretly about it. They are on a level of past dating, but not yet married. He is on a good terms with a dark councillor Chakara (the sith inquisitor) for they know each other from days of being acolytes on Korriban.

 **Chakara, the sith inquisitor(sith pureblood), age 30:**

Even though she is a sith pureblood, she does not orientate and falls directly to the dark side of force. In force sense and affections, she would be a neutral, neither light nor dark. She uses the sith code as a means to free herself from the shackles of being slave , then rising in sith society and becoming a dark councillor in a way that she is not bound by laws, reasons and emotions alone. She is in control of herself but sometimes she can be chaotic. She uses sith code for her own agenda, and that is to be truly free to live and explore new frontiers. She is fond of Arkanax for he helped her when she was just beginning to rise from rank of a slave on Korriban. She even has a little crush on him, but also knows that he is in love with Vette. While he wishes to remodel the Empire from within using his Acolyte/Padawan , she is changing the Empire by actually doing a thing or two in dark council. She knows she is playing a game of mice and cat, a game of thrones and she is careful in making every decision.


	4. Chapter 3

**AN: Hello readers, followers and other fellas. This one was a little late because of last exam on uni in a week or two, and will probably have some week or 2 of exam free. As mentioned in notification last week, I will be putting some references to modern day culture... ofc, they will not be obvious and I do not own them, I am using them only for the sake of depicting ambient of world. I do not own Dragon Age nor do I own Star Wars. You know that kind of drill... Also, an idea has struck me, of writing a crossover between Star Wars the old republic and Elders scrolls: Skyrim. Tell me what you think of it. I would write it after i finish with this project, though. And now... author out, story in.**

 **Rakghoul Blight**

 **Chapter 3: Dirty Deeds / Underhanded works**

* * *

 **Nar Shaddaa, Jaesa Willsaam POV**

"I have to ask, but should we not go to coordinates that we managed to get instead of being in this cantina waiting for something or somebody? My master said that I should follow you and be with your group but I do not see reason for being here. " Jaesa Willsaam wondered. She didn`t like secrets, plots, underhanded dealings and everything that was happening in last several hours stank on those kinds of things. Instead that they went from Taris straight to the world of so called Thedas, they went in the direction of Nar Shaddaa. She did not fell the dark side or malevolent intentions from Arkanax, but she still wondered. Well, he was captain of ship she was currently on and his crew members respected him, even thought when she asked them why they were going on Nar Shadda, they were not entirely sure of the reason. And now they were in this cantina waiting, while in background was some music that she seemed to like, reminding her of jazz and blues by Yar Slerahc. While they were waiting for anybody to come, several groups of shady people or aliens were also in cantina sitting, talking and/or making deals.

"No need to worry about everything. Right now, try to relax and enjoy this drink. This cantina has one of best drinks and really good music, and also... " Arkanax came closer to her so that she could hear him whisper " I know the owner of cantina, and he owes me several favors. Nobody will start a fight in here, because we are currently in center of Hutt controlled area. Everybody knows that if you start a fight in here, Hutts will not look at it nicely. And it seems my, or better, ours contact has arrived. "

Even before she could sense the contact with her force abilities, the contact sat with them at table. It was evident that he was covered in rags of robes and clothes, more akin to the clothes of Sand People of Tatooine but still not same. The person did not have the mask, and when he unfurled veil that covered its face, Jaesa understood why she could not feel contact in the force. Their contact was a droid, and it seems a highly sophisticated when he could walk quietly and use clothes to mask that he is a droid. Well, that at least left her baffled. Even on Alderaan, the nobility never sent the droids as contacts or post mans, even though the droids were way more trust worthy servants than living servants.

"This one greets you, travelers. For do you seek a carriage or a hammer? "The droid asked "Both, hammer for sturdiness and strength, carriage for people and safety on travel." "Then follow this one to the step. Master also sends regards and wishes a safe travel. "That was a trade of words between Arakanax and droid. Arakanx showed me to start moving and we followed the droid from cantina trough some small alleys and hidden paths to the area where hangars for space ships would be. On the way, there were many poor people begging for money, some slaves, we passed even through brothel to get to destination. "We arrived. This one hopes you will be satisfied by the display of choices. Know that what you choose will be a gift from master as token to his good ally and associate, for all the work you have done for us." The droid gave Arkanax a tablet with a list of ships of Frigate class.

Now that even got me more puzzled and somehow raised me a lot of questions. Who was an associate of Arkanax on Nar Shada that could give a Firgate class ship just as a gift and have a very sophisticated droid to use as a messanger? Even the Empire or Republic could not afford to be so generous... Knowing Arkanax, even for a month, she could decide rather not to ask him, for even thought he was favored by light side of Force, he was a resourceful man with a lot of secrets. She did not yet see the face under that Mandalorian helmet. At first, she thought that reason behind was that they were in area were Rakghouls could easly attack them, but even now on the ship he had the helmet on all the time. While she was going through all those thoughts, the Arkanax was browsing through tablet and looking at the ships that were available. He paused on one ship before and showed it to droid. In that time of pausing, she could only see outlets of the ship, as it seemed to look like a Hammerhead ship, Frigate class space ship. They were reliable and they could be heavily customized. The droid showed them to follow him to the taxi that landed several meters away from them. Quite convenient, maybe even to much convenient, but Arkanax sent a message to Mako to await them in space and he sent her some coordinates where they will meet. He also sent the same coordinates to some other contacts of his saying that the order is given, for they now what to bring. She grew even more skeptical with Arkanax. She knew better not to ask, but her curiosity got better of her when they entered the taxi. "Arkanax, I trust you because you proved your worth, but could you explain what in krifin` hell is happening ? And I swear on that I am sith apprentice, that I would kick your ass if you put us in danger. "He looked at her for a moment, and then a laugh could be heard. After some time he stopped laughing, even thought Jaessa was fuming with steam of anger.

"You could not put me in danger without putting yourself in danger too. We are in closed and cramped area of taxi. Your force and close combat abilities would not help you here. On the other hand, for me who knows how to fight in close quarters and confined places, even with experience of fighting both sith and jedi , I think that if i wanted to harm you, I could have done it long time ago already. There is a saying... show them open hand in welcoming gesture, but have a concealed weapon in another. "then she saw that bolter was already aimed at her. "For trust, it takes a lot of time to be built between to people, the time which we currently in a lack of. One of reasons I am not saying anything is because I also wish secrecy in all what we are doing. I do not seek expansion of Empire on unknown world, but I neither wish for Republic to get a hint of what we are doing currently. I have done dirty deeds for both sides, and both have a lot of secrets nobody would want to know. Secrets have a price, and sometimes they are more profitable than deeds taxi is leading us to the shutle for going were we want. Everything else will be known in the due time. " He removed blaster after saying all of that. Well, she saw his reasoning, and knew that behind those words is experience and also truth. That is, if she would try to harm him, she would not be able to do it without putting herself in danger. And that was even in open area where she could exert her powers of using Force. Well, she understood that she could complain as much as she would like but she would not get her answers. Well, with not being to get answers from Arkanax, she decided to at let herself calm down. It was not befitting of someone who watned to change Empire from inside to act only on feelings. She will have to secretly remind herself of jedi teaching. But still, she still did not trust him, only time will show her. Better that she is prepared for anything to be thrown at her.

* * *

 **Several hours later, Arkanax POV :**

Well, everything went better than expected. The Flaria, the unknown element on Nar Shaddaa hold her part of deal they struck several months ago, after she had employed him for several jobs, from being a body guard to several people who were under her influence to "encouraging" people who opposed her to not oppose her anymore or even to give her a several benefits. He never met the person, but heard her voice over voice message through which she was giving him information about jobs and missions. At first, the payment was good, but after he got acquainted with her line of work and hearing some rumors, he decided to rather trade in favors. He does one job for her and she would owe him a favor, a reasonable one at that. She owed him already a dozens of favors, and when he heard that he had to travel to uncharted planet in unknown parts of space, he decided to pull some strings and get some favors repaid. He contacted her for to prepare him a ship of about 180 meter length that could be piloted by 2 person and kept in full function by several people, that it has big cargo space and sturdy hull so that it could take quite a beating if they would be attacked by anyone. Of course, he promised Flaria to return the ship after he was done with mission for which he needed the ship for. He also contacted several traders who were in debt to him to inform that they would pay their debt by some percentage by providing food, drinkable water and some others necessities such as life support tools, stimpacks and medi-gel. He informed them of all of that even before he landed on Nar-Shaddaa so that they have all prepared when he would get the ship.

Well, all in all, now that he looked how everything went, it went better than he expected. Flaria went out of her bounds with that personalized Hammerhead called "Infinity", which was quite in bounds of his demands. It even had integrated cloaking system that could slip them through some radar and several turrets for defense or offense. She was quite a beauty, and could hold the most important ship, his own D-5 Mantis called "Lady Hope". He knew well that if things went south, he would have to abandon "Infinity" and get away with "Lady Hope" but "Lady Hope" did not have enough space to supply a lot of people for a lengthy period of time. And he knew they would spend a lot of time on planet of Thedas. Better be prepared than sorry. He was also content that there were enough so rooms for everyone on board. But it seemed that Lieutenant Pierce followed them and he openly expressed that he wishes to join Arkanax on his mission. Arkanax was a little bit unhappy with it, but decided rather to have some heavy weapon specialist and trained soldier on ship rather to leave him on Nar Shaddaa. You never knew what can a world, that is probably a home world of Rakghouls, throw at you. Even on some peacfull worlds, a shit could hit the fan before you even pulled a blaster from it is folder. And that happened more often than he could think or count of. One of reasons why he loved words like Tatooine or Hutta, you could always count on things to go south, deals to be broken and backstabbing to be casually as shaking hands. Hutts were greedy slimes with no backbone, but they knew his reputation and not to mess with him or he would send regards to them. One they would not forget so fast, and will make them think twice before doing anything. They all know what happened with last hutt that wanted to cross him.

And now, he has servants loyal to Sith Warrior and by that extension, to the Sith Empire, abroad his ship. It was reasonable of his employer to be suspicious and send some to check if the mission is going as planned, but it unnerved him the thought that he serves the Empire by some extension. The jobs of warring sides may make you rich, but that makes you a rich person for the short time, for the other side would probably try to get rid of you, and your employers would want to put you under their heavy rags where they keep all their little dirty secrets. At least those who he got were not some mindless puppets of Empire. Pierce seemed like a soldier fella who follows orders, but also thinks with his own head and will not let be led by some unworthy people who do not deserve his respect. Arkanax could work with that kind of people quite fine. Heck, he was usually on very good terms with them because of their straightforwardness.

On the other hand, Jaesa was a weird or uncountable element. An apprentice of Sith warrior, but he knew from his dealings with any of Sith that that was not everything. She was just too calm and peaceful with how she acted, reminding him of how Jedi should actually be, as he knew one old Jedi from his childhood. At first he thought that she was a kind of sleeper agent, but it seems that even she has some strings which you have to pull to stir her a little bit. He tested her while they were on Nar Shaddaa, to see how much of waiting and secrets she could take. It was underhanded of him, but life is not a fairy tale where you can trust everyone. Trust can only be earned by hard work and lost easily as breathing comes to living beings. Jedi and Sith, both were people that he could come hard to trust. Jedi who are not seeking always peace instead seeking a conflict with Sith because of their different believes, or Sith for being drunk on their power and importance that they get in the Empire. They see world just as black and white, while it is actually several shades of grey or even a full color spectrum, it depends on how you live through it.

He knew he had not enough of time to tinker about them for they were already short on time, he could not say for sure, but he could smell that Republic could be on their tail about this mission. He will truly have to be crafty with how he thinks to get to that world of Thedas, as it was called. He managed to salvage some of scraps from ancient ship on Taris, and it seemed that they had some knowledge of metallurgy and were making swords, for he kept one he salvaged. He and his rew trained everyday with Torian in a way that Torian explained them. It was an interesting one, using music, trust and weapons to train their skills as team and as individuals, strengthening their bounds that they shared. It was mostly him, Torian and Mako, but sometimes Gault or Blitzz would join them. It was needed that once in a week they do it all together in same time. He has done it even on his honeymoon with Mako, without the rest of squad. He was quite happy with how some of those moments of training turned out on his honeymoon. But nevertheless, he gained a lot of experience with fighting with melee weapons. Hell knows he will need it.

* * *

 **Thedas , Unknown POV :**

Ah, the pawns, puppets and puppet masters are starting to move. Some pawns will become puppets even without them wanting to become it. Fate was a cruel mistress, or was it destiny or per chance misfortune of some people to be in one place. One of pawns gave her nice visit, fools who understands more than he realizes or a genius who realizes everything but does not understand it. You could always count on fools to do their part, but genius always made greatest sparks and ripples in quiet world which stirred it as it should be. Well, some things even she could not control, but she could guide or move in a way that would be in her favor. Some pawns never realize what they are until is too late, no matter what kind of person they are. There is potential in those who visited her, and she shall see it that they are guided under her influence, let the ripples they make at least be in some way to her favor. A seed will have to be planted. A seed that will create one of biggest stirrings that even the rest of Old ones will not be able to stay quiet about it. A history repeats itself, without everyone noticing, for all have forgotten it only legends and myths have stayed. They all faded , what an amusing play of words was that. It is ironic one but a true one. Everything fades but never ceases to exist. She can feel something, but even she does not know truly what unknown will come. It may be a last straw of hope or a first cut in ropes that hold world from crumbling. Visions are never clear about those kinds of things. They always put weird ides in your heads, but only morons do not heed what visions may mean. And she was never one of such people, for they guided her in some moments of life and they did come always true. The strongest of ropes are knitted by many threads , and when one thread breaks, rope weakens. And this one is already weak.


End file.
